The Migration and Climate Change Nexus

In recent years, the terms “climate refugee” or “environmental refugee” have featured heavily in news media and popular commentary. Often, such terms are accompanied by shockingly large numbers, referring to everything from current migration levels to future “climate refugee” predictions. While the topic of migration and climate change is of undoubted importance, these ways of approaching the issue oversimplify the complex reality of climate change and distort its relationship to migration. Moreover, by ignoring the various connections between migration and climate change, such narrow framings jeopardize prospects for creating policies that address the root causes leading people to leave their homes